IEPs

Each public school child who receives special education and related services must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The IEP creates an opportunity for teachers, parents, school administrators, related services personnel, and students (when appropriate) to work together to improve educational results for children with disabilities. This section includes articles about how to create a useful IEP, understanding the IEP process, and the importance of good communication.

When dealing with a bureaucracy, and school districts are bureaucracies, you need to keep detailed records. Logs, journals, and calendars provide answers and support memories and testimonies. This article provides examples of how to keep a paper trail.

This overview from the PACER Center walks parents through each step of the special education process, describing what happens from the time a child is referred for evaluation through the development of an individualized education program (IEP).

This PACER Center fact sheet informs parents about evaluation, a process to help determine whether a child has a disability and what the child's educational needs might be. The article discusses the reasons why parents might choose to evaluate their child, types of tests available, factors that should be considered when selecting tests, and questions parents should ask when an evaluation is proposed.

Learn about resolution meetings, a new conflict resolution process established under IDEA, 2004. This guide tells you the benefits and challenges of participating in these meetings. Find out how to prepare for the meeting and what to do afterwards.

What happens after assistive technology is considered in an IEP? The National Assistive Technology Research Institute (NATRI) surveyed educators around the nation to find out. Learn from their “top ten” list of findings on the use and support of AT.

When a doctor develops a treatment plan for a sick child, the doctor uses objective data from diagnostic tests. Your child's individualized education program is similar to a medical treatment plan, and you need objective tests to know that your child is acquiring reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.

Individualized education program (IEP) goals cannot be broad statements about what a child will accomplish. Goals that cannot be measured are non-goals. Learn how to help the IEP team devise specific, measurable, realistic goals.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities presents examples of accommodations that allow students with learning disabilities to show what they know without giving them an unfair advantage. Accommodations are divided into the following categories: how information is presented to the student, how the student can respond, timing of tests and lessons, the learning environment, and test scheduling.